A Teleconference on Disaster Preparedness in the Medical Practice from the Publishers of The Journal of Medical Practice Management®

Debra Cascardo, President of Cascardo Consulting Group, and Stephen S. Morse, Ph.D, Founding Director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, will present a 90 minute audio conference titled “Disasters: Are You Prepared?” on Tuesday, November 2, 2006 at 1 p.m. EST. The cost of the audio conference is $227 per call in line.

With natural disasters and terrorism threats headlining the daily news reports, medical practices must face the reality that disaster can strike. This audio conference discusses the role of the physician and office staff in disaster planning. It will also include a practical discussion on a more regional/global outlook of partnering with hospitals, government entities, service agencies and others who may be called in to handle a major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, September 11, or Pandemic Flu.

“Many people think of disasters today in terms of a cataclysmic event like Hurricane Katrina or the Power Grid Failure of 2003, but disasters in a medical practice come in many forms and can be as mundane as the hard disk crashing on the practice’s primary computer. The unfortunate truth is that most medical practices do not have a coherent vision or plan of response for any disaster. HIPAA requires health care organizations to implement contingency planning and disaster recovery processes, but very few comply,” says Nancy Collins, Publisher of The Journal of Medical Practice Management®.

“Putting together an effective emergency management plan is not a simple task and it requires legitimate time and resources to accomplish.” Collins adds, “Once the plan is in place, it needs to be maintained. This audio conference is intended to be starting point for those who have no plan and a review for those who do. We’re extremely fortunate to have Debra Cascardo and Dr. Stephen Morse as presenters on this subject.”

Topics of the audio conference are: what constitutes a disaster; minimizing business interruption; ensuring the practice survives the disaster; preparing for the unforeseen; using a disaster plan as a blueprint for recovery, how to partner with other practices, hospitals and the community; the basic services patients expect to receive from your office during a disaster and identifying the services that are essential to your operation.

Debra Cascardo, M.A., M.P.A., is the President of The Cascardo Consulting Group based in Armonk, N.Y. Her expertise is in practice management consulting specializing in systems analysis and implementation with special emphasis on reimbursement and compliance issues. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and has written extensively for The Journal of Medical Practice Management® as well as for Medscape, and has published in the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, Medical Economics, the Journal for the American Association of Office Nurses, the Journal of Health Care Finance, and Pain Medicine News.
Stephen S. Morse, Ph.D. is Founding Director, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and holds an Adjunct Faculty appointment at The Rockefeller University. Prior to Columbia, he spent 5 years in federal service as Program Manager for Biodefense at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He chaired the NIH Conference on Emerging Viruses (1989), was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) “Committee on Emerging Microbial Threats to Health”, the founding Chair of ProMED (the international Program to Monitor Emerging Diseases), and a founding section editor of the CDC journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The cost for the audio conference is $227 per dial-in line. There is no limit to the number of people who may listen-in. Program materials will be supplied prior to the audio conference. Audio conference attendees will also be able to ask questions in real-time to Ms. Cascardo and Dr. Morse.

Anyone interested in attending can reserve by calling (888) 523-8445 or visiting http://conference.mpmnetwork.com.